 John Hoschette
Senior Systems Staff Engineer
Lockheed Martin
Sunnyvale, CA
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 B.S. -
Electrical Engineering, University of Minnesota
M.S. -
Electrical Engineering, University of Minnesota
MBA - University
of Minnesota |
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Senior Systems Staff
Engineer working with systems integration and focusing on image
processing with infrared camera systems, computers, and
software. |
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"Take the time to
look within. Be sure that they truly like the major they're in." |
 
"In industry, we expect you to work on teams and get answers from other
people. That's not called cheating but in college in you're in the middle
of a final and stuck on a problem and leaned over to your person next to
you and said, I don't get number 3. Can you tell me the answer? The
professor would throw you out. In industry what we'd do is reward you and
say, great job. You found it sooner."
"By junior year, you should be in the career centers looking at the jobs
and surveying industry. The final thing that is absolutely a must is that
you've got to have a plan. You've got to know where you are going. By a
plan I mean you should know what industry you are targeting to work in,
what geographic area, and you should hone your engineering skills so that
they can represent a specific skill pack."
John Hoschette remembers what it was like to start out on his engineering
career. "Looking for job number one is very scary. I was an engineering
student and I had finally mastered the university and suddenly they said,
`Well, you're going to graduate and get a job and you need to go find
out.' So I was very scared."
Hoschette did find out and has now been in industry for twenty-three
years. His work on infrared camera systems has expanded, and he now
teaches courses in his field in the United States and Europe. Hoschette
also enjoys helping other engineers plan their careers and is a member of
the IEEE Career Maintenance and Development Committee and has written a
book entitled Career Advancement and Survival for Engineers.
Hoschette's first piece of advice to young engineers is to spend a great
deal of time thinking about what they want to do in their careers and to
plan for it. Some of his suggestions are practical. "Get organized and get
help. You've got to get in the career centers; you've got to meet with
people; you've got to get out of the classroom; and you've got to do
networking: very, very important and do your research."
But Hoschette also tells students to take the time to look within. He
advises them to be sure that they truly like the major they're in. They
had better "enjoy the work because they're going do it the rest of their
lives." And they need to think about the kind of engineers they want to
be: "There's people out there that value money and position and then
there's people out there that value pure engineering science." The latter
generally choose to dedicate their time to the lab and the former to the
business.
Even experienced engineers must continue thinking about their careers.
John Hoschette himself now stands at a crossroads. "I've reached my
lifetime goal, and I'm struggling with where do I go from here. So I'm
doing some soul searching at this point."
John Hoschette wrote "Career Advancement and Survival for Engineers"
published by John Wiley & Sons.
Download Full Profile as PDF
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